Mechanism to control and use window events among applications in concurrent computing
Patent 5844553 Issued on December 1, 1998. Estimated Expiration Date: March 29, 2016. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
715/733, For plural users or sites (e.g., network)709/201, DISTRIBUTED DATA PROCESSING709/204, COMPUTER CONFERENCING709/214, Plural shared memories715/751, Computer supported collaborative work between plural users715/753Computer conferencing
A new application sharing technology that enables sharing of many single-user non-modified applications between two or more workstations. It provides concurrent sharing of existing multiple applications with no change in a distributed environment. It permits real-time sharing of distributed applications based on a fundamental window hierarchical mapping and user interactions. Control is centralized but the data and program are replicated. It is event driven with agent assistance. The new event capturing capability is automatically triggered by user interactions on entering/leaving the shared window. The event capturing capability starts when the user moves the pointer into the shared windows. The event capturing ends when the user moves the pointer out of the shared windows. The new multicasting scope is defined in a shared window hierarchy data array. This global data array is dynamically created at run time on an as-needed basis. Because this mechanism only processes user input events such as mouse, keyboard or cursor movement (commands), no output graphic data transmission across the network is required. Therefore, this approach is extremely light-weight and provides secure transmission without requiring intensive encryption. Because it is not using pseudo server interception, this approach can support DHA 3-D rendering. Also, the agent can dynamically mediate resources and normalize environment differences. This permits real-time sharing of 3-D, graphic and DHA (direct hardware access) applications. DHA permits the application to bypass the windowing server to render graphics on display. Moreover, because it is extremely light-weight, high network bandwidth is not required.
Other References
Ming C. Hao et al, "Concurrent Application Control in Collaborative Computing", 1994, pp. 1-13
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